A Big Day Upon Me

A day I've had my sights on for some time now is upon me.
Up and out early to High Point for 7:15 plug at WGHP.
Dave Glenn, a buddy for years, is calling at 1. Always great being on with Dave. We'll have fun talking ACC Basketball. We've swapped a few stories over the years -- which is what this book is really all about -- and I imagine we'll swap some more tomorrow.
By 5 I'll be down at Fourth and Spruce for the gala ACC Basketball Book of Fame Launch Party the good folks at Blair Publishing are throwing at the Community Arts Cafe. We're cranking up the good times at 5:30 p.m. and roaring all the way to the wee hour of 7 p.m. And like Robert Earl Keen might (and did) sing we'll be painting the town beige.
Speaking of Robert Earl Keen, he's not on the bill. But we will have the next best thing or two with an appearance by the one and only Twin City Buskers sure to have the toes a tapping and the knees a slapping. When Heath Combs is in the house, the good times are sure to be rolling.
Or as the late great Sam Cooke sang it best:

Come on and let the good times roll,
We're going to stay here til we soothe our soul,
If it takes all night long.

Well in this case we're going to have to get it all done by 7 p.m., but might as well set our sights as high as we can.
And after Heath and Bubba Spear and Johnny Hoots and Ed Snider have reduced the crowd to a mass of quivering protoplasm, and they can bear no more, it'll be time for the much-ballyhooed debuting of Country Dan Collins and the All-ACC Hotshots laying out five tunes, all of them original except for the lid-lifting arrangement of the heart-rendering theme song of Saturday afternoons gone by Sail With the Pilot

Sail With the Pilot
At the Wheel
On a Ship Sturdy 
From It's Mast to Its Keel

Guides You Through Storm and Wave
Insures You While You Save

Sail with the Pilot
All the Way
So Get on Board that Pilot Ship Today.

Even while recognizing I could never as much as approach such a musical masterpiece, I felt strangely compelled to try. My efforts produced a couple of songs about giants who played leading roles in my book. The first was the coach who was the biggest name of the conference when it was coming into being back in 1954 and thankfully was on hand to help get it off right. He was the coach at N.C. State and his name was Everett Case. He's known to history as the Old Gray Fox, and he was quite the character. What convinced me that a song needed to be written about the Old Gray Fox was hearing how he was a bachelor who lived over in Cameron Village about the distance of a deep 3-pointer (which they didn't have back in his day) from the State College campus and how after games, he'd have everybody over to his house to wind down from the high. And by everybody I mean his players, sportswriters, referees, assorted acquaintances and guys from around town and, best of all, even the coaches for the team he'd just beaten. Tim Peeler at N.C. State has written some fabulous accounts of how Case would hold court in his den by the wet bar and how his players knew Coach liked his Imperial Whiskey over the rocks chased with water. And if the players wanted their own bit of libation, that was something that stayed over at 611 Daniels Street. To me there was a song in there and I had to write it.
The other tune is about the greatest ACC Player of All Time, the incomparable David Thompson. Seeings how I began writing sports as a college junior in 1972, the Great DT was where I came in. And I'm proud of it as I express repeatedly in the tune.
So almost 40 years later I'm headed to bed to get my good rest for a big day, a day I've had my sights on for some time. Hope to see you all at the grand occasion.
We'll have us a time.